What this is about: Watching all of the anime shows so you don’t have to! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.

Series Premise: Kamisama Dolls is a weekly televised anime series started in July 2011, based on an action series by Hajime Yamamura. Billed as “Girl Meets God”, Kyouhei has moved away from his small village to start a new life away from the obligations and traumatic events of his past, shunning a life where he was the one of the masters of a powerful “god” in the form of a summoned “Doll”. But when his younger sister shows up at his doorstep following a grisly murder, he soon finds he cannot run from his past.

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Very Quick Episode Summary: Utao and Kyouhei return back home, where Kyouhei confirms that Utao has a twin brother, and the secret has been kept from him his entire life. Along with Boobino, they visit the local crazy-lady (and her overenthusiastic younger sister) who start repairing the broken god. Meanwhile Twin-Utao is taken away to stay with Koushiro and his wife, who show him kindness for the first time in his life. Utao practices with the repaired Kukuri, nearly kills Kyouhei and Boobino in the process, and Kyouhei starts reminiscing about his past.

My Impressions: I’m getting a bit worried that we are now at the halfway point of the series (13 episodes), and it seems like they have built up a backstory and mythology of the series that would be enough for a show at least twice that long. I mean, we are still in the First Act, introducing characters, painting the setting, setting the plot into motion. The next episodes is going to be a flashback episode, fer crissakes!. I find it hard to imagine there will be enough time to come to any sort of resolution in the short amount of time left…unless there is going to be a second part further down the road. And given the anime industry environment, that’s hardly a given.

Instead, it seems they are playing up the comedy bits, especially with the various over-the-top reactions from an always-embarrassed Utao (who remains as cute as a button, even when she is seething mad), and also the “inadvertent” fanservice-y bits. Speaking of which…

I really want to get away from talking about, um, Boobino’s ‘tangible assets’ (in fact, I’m fairly sure I wrote at one point I didn’t want to write about it anymore). Except the producers of the show are making sure that ain’t going to happen, taking every possible chance to shove her overinflated funbags into as many scenes as possible. Like when Utao and Kyouhei are literally stripping the clothes off her body as she hangs on for dear life by her fingernails. Or when Kyouhei and Boobino just “happen” to get caught in sudden cloudburst.

Female main characters sporting “huge…tracts of land” is hardly a novel concept in anime shows. In fact, it is almost a requirement. So why do I keep bitching about it? Because it remains such a massive, bouncing, giggling distraction from the actual serious, dramatic plot (and thank god this show actually has one). Boobino’s twin airbags are literally a detraction for the series.

Don’t get me wrong. I am, and always have been, a fan of the female anatomy. But if I’m going to enjoy “teh boobies” in my anime, I’d rather watch a fluffy fan-service-type show where that is the aim. By shoving Boobino’s mammaries in our faces at every possible opportunity, it just becomes a distraction from the rest of the show. Hard to focus on the rest of the plot when thirty seconds later you have a couple of pendulous udders flopping around on the screen. And anyone who is trying to talk around them about the actual plot is kidding themselves. (Over on Random Curiosity, for example, one of the running jokes in the discussion boards after each episode is to count up the number of comments that mention the boobs versus everything else. The ratio is staggeringly high. Each time.)

Bah humbug. I’m complaining way too much about this. I should be focusing more on the plot, I know. But it does irk me.

“The devil is in the details, and really, this episode did well in foreshadowing things that can unfold, all while maintaining a sense of tension and mystery. This series so far has been fairly well balanced, though it has had it’s mediocre moments as well. Although this has a rather cliche set of characters, they are starting to turn into a more charming cast.” – Emory Anime Club

“Kamisama Dolls isn’t perfect. The antics with Utao can still be too self-aware, and not all of the comedy is effective. But in general, the series has done a fantastic job piecing together and complex, atmospheric and fascinating story peopled by a diverse and appealing cast.” – Lost in Anime

“This episode was just boring. All the random boobage exposure aside, it just fell very flat with everything. I know I wanted exposistion, but something with a bit more meat. We didn’t really learn anything about the shrine, so much as we learned a little about Dolls and how they function.” – Metanorn